This is a good month to consider harvesting cool season crops like lettuce, radish, carrots, spinach, and peas, that have been growing in the garden for a while. There is nothing quite as tasty as a salad made from produce collected from the backyard garden.

I am what my mother calls a garden grazer. One of the easiest ways to get me to eat my vegetables, especially garden peas, was to send me out to harvest them. I would pick them and eat them right there in the garden. I still enjoy doing that today. In fact, most garden peas don’t make it into the house before they get eaten.

Harvesting these cool season crops makes room for more of the warm weather crops like cucumbers, squash, peppers, tomatoes and others.  As the cool season crops come out, there is no reason to wait to put the warm season crops right in their place. Plant what you like, but don’t be afraid to try something new each year. A new variety of tomato may have the perfect flavor for that summer afternoon sandwich.